Social characteristics of New Hampshire, comparisons to other states

General Discussion
#1

Most of the stuff discussed in this forum revolve around political interests, and political action.
What follows is an attempt to characterize NH based on other parameters as well.

Back in the time of COVID, it seemed like the Christian churches took the lead wrt assemblies of more than a certain number of people. Obviously this was important for attendance at weekly religious assemblies. We often here about “Bible Belt” resistance to liberty. So I wondered, what is the religious profile of NH, compared to other states.

The United States is (at least used to be) forbidden to ask questions about religious affiliation. I have therefore looked elsewhere for data for the 50 states about religious affiliation. The following is taken from Alabama – American Values Atlas

States with a Christian population above 80% are
92% Mississippi
85% Arkansas
84% Alabama
83% Louisiana
83% South Carolina
82% South Dakota
81% Nebraska

At the other end of the spectrum, states with less than 60% of the population Christian are
59% New Hampshire
57% Washington
53% Oregon
51% Ohio

States with more than 30% of the population “unaffiliated” are
37% Oregon
35% New Hampshire
33% Washington
32% Vermont

States with less than 15% “unaffiliated” are
14% Louisiana
13% Arkansas
11% Alabama
10% Mississippi

#2

Educational attainment is a little more complicated. I believe the data refer to adults, that is, over 18.

States in which more than 50% of the population have a high school education or less are
56% West Virginia
56% Kentucky
53% Oklahoma
53% Maine
51% Louisiana

States in which more than 70% have more than a high school education are
77% New Hampshire
75% Vermont
73% Maryland
72% North Dakota
72% Oregon
71% Massachusetts

#3

Regardless of what the laws are, how do the people feel about some issues?

For instance, How do people in the several states vary in their views about same-sex marriage?

States in which more than 75% of the people favor same-sex marriage
81% Massachusetts
81% Vermont
80% Connecticut
78% Washington
76% Nevada
76% New Jersey

Note that New Hampshire is not in the above list. However, it misses it by just a little. Three states have a 75% approval rating: Alaska, New Hampshire, and Oregon

But, we cannot assume that the rest of the people in a state oppose same-sex marriage, as the polling has a category of “Don’t Know/Refused”, which can be as high as 6%.

Opposition to same-sex marriage is always below 50%. States where more than 45% oppose same-sex marriage are
47% Alabama
47% Arkansas
46% Mississippi

Regardless of how they personally feel, how do people think about other people’s rights to adhere to their own religious beliefs?

States that have a favorable attitude toward religiously based refusals to serve gay and lesbian people, above 50% of the people, are
56% Nebraska
55% South Dakota
53% Idaho
52% Missouri
52% Montana

States where opposition to religiously based refusals to serve gay and lesbian people is above 65% are
75% Massachusetts
73% Hawaii
70% New York
70% Connecticut
66% Oregon
66% New Jersey

Question: In a Free State, where do we draw the line? Do we allow people to adhere to their religious beliefs and refuse to serve gay and lesbian people based on religious beliefs?
Or do we insist on forcing those with strong religious beliefs against serving gay and lesbian people to violate those religious beliefs?

New Hampshire tends toward the latter, with 38% favoring the right to refuse service to gay and lesbian people based on religious beliefs, and 62 opposed.

#4

Note: All of the above data comes from PRRI, the Public Religion Research Institute, for 2023. Polling is conducted annually.

The influence of religion in the U.S. is undeniable. But there are some movements that go even further. One of these is the Christian Nationalism movement, which seeks to make the US an explicitly Christian nation.

States in which more than 50% of the people completely or mostly agree that US laws should be based on Christian values are
59% North Dakota
56% Alabama
55% Kentucky
55% West Virginia
54% South Carolina
54% Louisiana
53% South Dakota
52% Tennessee
52% Arkansas
52% Oklahoma
51% Wyoming

States in which more than 65% of people mostly or completely disagree that U.S. laws should be based on Christian values are
73% Oregon
73% Massachusetts
69% Nevada
67% Washington
67% New York
66% Hawaii
66% New Jersey

In New Hampshire 38 completely or mostly agree, 60% mostly or completely disagree.

#5

There is some correlation between social beliefs and party affiliation. But, many people do not wish affiliation with the two major parties in the US.

States in which more than 60% of people declare affiliation with the two major parties, Democratic and Republican, are:
69% Pennsylvania
67% Maryland
65% Alabama
65% Wyoming
64% Kentucky
63% Missouri
62% South Dakota
61% Georgia
61% Illinois
61% Minnesota
61% New York

The states in which people declaring either “independent” or “other” exceeds 50% are:
62% Alaska
61% Rhode Island
58% Maine
55% Delaware
54% Massachusetts
53% New Hampshire

#6

One of the major movements of our times is white nationalism, Christian nationalism, and associated organizations. For example, if I’m not mistaken, KKK is a white, Protestant, nationalist organization.
(They don’t admit Catholics or Jews, or other religions)
How do people look at Christian Nationalism? The PRRI polling has 5 responses: Rejecters, Skeptics, Sympathizers, Adherents, and Don’t know / refused

States with percentages of respondents answering “Rejecters” or “Skeptics” exceeding 75% are:
79% Oregon
78% Massachusetts
77% Washington
77% Maryland
76% New York
76% Nevada
76% California
New Hampshire comes in at 73%

States with percentages of respondents answering “Sympathizers” or “Adherents” exceeding 45% are:
50% Mississippi
50% North Dakota
47% West Virginia
47% Alabama
46% Louisiana
45% Tennessee
45% Kentucky
45% Nebraska
New Hampshire comes in at 26%

#7

One final from the PRRI.
“Being Christian is important to being truly American”

States that Mostly Agree or Completely Agree:
48% Alabama
48% Mississippi
48% North Dakota
45% Arkansas
45% Kentucky
45% Louisiana
45% Nebraska
45% Wyoming
New Hampshire is at 24%

States that Mostly Disagree or Completely Disagree:
82% Wyoming
80% Kansas
80% Nevada
79% Nebraska
79% Ohio
79% Maine
79% Vermont
New Hampshire is at 73%a

#8

I have been able to find a breakdown of religious affiliation by county.

New Hampshire Counties ranked by Total Christian Population
72.6% Belknap
67.4% Rockingham
64.5% Sullivan
63.7% Cheshire
63.1% Coos
62.7% Strafford
59.3% Carroll
58.5% Hillsborough
56.4% Merrimack
51.9% Grafton

New Hampshire Counties ranked by total of Unitarian/Universalists, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and other non-Christian religions
9.6% Belknap
8.7% Hillsborough
6.5% Rockingham
5.3% Strafford
4.9% Merrimack
4.3% Grafton
3.5% Cheshire
2.9% Sullivan
2.9% Carroll
2.4% Coos

New Hampshire Counties ranked by percentage unaffiliated with any religion
44.2% Grafton
38.6% Merrimack
37.9% Carroll
34.5% Coos
32.8% Hillsborough
32.7% Cheshire
32.7% Sullivan
32.1% Strafford
25.9% Rockingham
24.6% Belknap

#9

Regardless of religious affiliation, one survey asked people how “religious” they considered themselves.

States with the highest response of “very religious” are:
77% Alabama
77% Mississippi
73% Tennessee
71% Louisiana
70% Arkansas
70% South Carolina

The least religious states:
43% Connecticut
34% Maine
34% Vermont
33% Massachusetts
33% New Hampshire

https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/most-religious-states

#10

Turning now to homeless… according to the link listed below, the top four causes of homelessness, in order, lack of affordable housing, unemployment, poverty, and low wages.

According to the link listed below, states with a total homeless rate less than 8 per 10,000 are:
4.1 Mississippi
7.0 South Carolina
7.3 Illinois
7.4 Alabama
7.6 Iowa
7.6 Virginia
7.7 West Virginia
7.9 North Dakota

States with a total homeless rate above 40 per 10,000 are:
41.4 Hawaii
42.3 Oregon
43.1 Vermont
43.7 California
65.8 District of Columbia

New Hampshire has a total homeless rate of 11.6 per 10,000.

Chronic homelessness is another matter altogether.
States with the chronic homeless rates below 1.0 are:
0.3 Connecticut
0.4 Mississippi
0.7 Indiana
0.9 Louisiana
0.9 Ohio
0.9 Wisconsin

States with chronic homeless rates above 8.0 are:
8.7 Nevada
9.5 Washington
10.4 Hawaii
14.7 California
15.2 Oregon
18.8 District of Columbia

New Hampshire has a chronic homeless rate of 2.5 per 10,000.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/homeless-population-by-state
Updated to 2024.

#11

Music an integral part of any society.
The link below was published in 2025, so I assume it uses figures from 2024.
I used population estimates from mid-2024.
GDP figures are from 2023.
Since not all data was from exactly the same period, the following should be taken as an approximation, at least as far as % of GDP is concerned.

States in which the music industry contribution exceeded 1% of the state GDP are
1.41% Tennessee
1.33% California
1.15% New York
1.03% Texas

States in which the music industry contribution was less than .2% of the state GDP are
0.19% Arkansas
0.19% Kentucky
0.16% Wyoming
0.15% Iowa
0.11% West Virginia
0.08% Mississippi

In New Hampshire the music industry contribution to the state GDP was 0.38%

States in which the music industry supported more than 80 jobs per 10000 persons were:
116.69 California
106.14 New York
93.09 Tennessee
88.60 Rhode Island
87.72 Pennsylvania
84.17 Colorado
82.59 South Dakota

States in which the music industry supported fewer than 20 jobs per 10,000 persons are:
19.94 Arkansas
18.21 Wyoming
18.05 Kentucky
17.62 Iowa
11.78 West Virginia
5.81 Mississippi

The states with more than 70 songwriters per 10,000 persons are:
102.78 Tennessee
92.37 Georgia
84.06 District of Columbia
71.37 New York

The states with fewer than 15 songwriters per 10,000 are:
14.68 Iowa
12.59 South Dakota
11.80 North Dakota
1.82 West Virginia
New Hampshire came in at 23.84 songwriters per 10,000 persons.

I do not have definitions for what constitutes a “music establishment”.
The following states have more than 10 music establishments per 10,000 persons:
20.40 California
13.80 Colorado
12.10 Utah
11.08 New York
10.28 Oregon
10.22 Georgia
10.08 Nevada

States with fewer than 2 music establishments per 10,000 persons are:
1.96 Kansas
1.94 Arkansas
1.91 Indiana
1.68 Iowa
1.51 Alabama
0.89 Mississippi
0.45 West Virginia
New Hampshire has 2.2 0 music establishments per 10,000 persons.

States with more than 10 royalty recipients per 10,000 persons are:
21.30 West Virginia
20.07 Tennessee
14.75 Georgia
13.61 District of Columbia
12.71 New York
12.43 California
10.70 Nevada

States with fewer than 3 royalty recipients per 10,000 are:
2.69 Montana
2.68 Utah
2.66 Alaska
2.37 Wyoming
2.02 Nebraska
1.86 Idaho
1.79 Iowa
1.57 South Dakota
1.31 North Dakota
New Hampshire has 3.54 royalty recipients per 10,000

Published 2025

#12

There are still movie theaters in the United States, despite the Internet and video media.

States with more than 4 movie theaters per 100,000 persons are:
5.1 Wyoming
4.9 South Dakota
4.8 North Dakota
4.4 Montana

States with fewer than 1 movie theater per 100,000 persons are:
0.99 Rhode Island
0.97 Maryland
0.97 Florida
0.96 New Jersey
0.96 Louisiana
0.95 South Carolina

New Hampshire comes in at 2.27 movie theaters per 100,000 persons

#13

In the cases of music and movies above, several things have to be taken into consideration.
Many musicians self-publish their music, or publish through another organization which is itself not specifically a music organization.
Videos and music published through niche organizations, or non-profits, for example, are often self-published. Much music is self-published by uploading to the Internet.
A list of the favorite music genres by state only lists the broad categories, so, for example, rap and hip hop, folk and filk, or bagpipe music does not show up for any state, but that does not mean there are no consumers for these types of music.
Some movies are straight-to-video, which seems to occur with videos produced for young children.
None of these show in the movie theaters.
For these reasons, consumers of these types of music and video are not taken into account in the above two analysis.

I have been unable, thus far, to find any information/data for consumption of individual genres by state.

#14

In previous topics I have discussed marriage laws throughout the US.
See: What can be done to make NH the most libertarian state

I have looked at census data for the makeup of households in the US, by state.
The states in which more than 48% of the total households are headed by a married couple, are:
58.3% Utah
54.0% Idaho
50.0% New Hampshire
49.2% Wyoming
49.0% Hawaii
48.8% Kansas
48.8% Minnesota
48.8% Nebraska
48.8% New Jersey

The states in which less than 44% of the total households are headed by a married couple, are:
43.3% Nevada
41.9% New Mexico
41.9% Rhode Island
41.8% Mississippi
41.2% New York
41.1% Louisiana
24.2% District of Columbia

The states in which more than 8% of the total households are headed by an unmarried-partner couple, are:
9.5% Vermont
9.4% Maine
9.4% Louisiana
8.7% Oregon
8.6% Nevada
8.5% New Hampshire
8.4% Alaska
8.1% Washington
8.1% New Mexico
8.1% District of Columbia

The states in which less than 6% of the total households are headed by an unmarried-partner couple, are:
6.0% Virginia
6.0% Georgia
5.8% South Carolina
5.4% Mississippi
5.2% Utah

Totals of married couples+unmarried-partner couples will not add to 100% because many households are headed by single persons.

Data obtained from

#15

Average household size is remarkably similar across the US, between 2.03 for District of Columbia to 3.04 for Utah.

The states with average household size above 2.6 are
3.04 Utah
2.92 Hawaii
2.89 California
2.73 Texas
2.67 Alaska
2.67 Idaho
2.65 Georgia
2.64 Nevada
2.64 New Jersey

The states with average household size below 2.40 are
2.39 Montana
2.37 Wisconsin
2.34 North Dakota
2.33 Vermont
2.29 Maine
2.03 District of Columbia

New Hampshire comes in at 2.46 persons per household.

Data from Average Household Size by State 2024

#16

Regardless of whether or not Trump is doing anything illegal, he is acting on a wide spectrum of social social questions. So, how does this play out
in the states.

The states giving Trump a favorable rating avove 60% are:
69% Wyoming
68% West Virginia
67% North Dakota
66% Idaho
63% Oklahoma
62% Alabama
61% Arkansas

States giving Trump a favorable rating below 40% are:
39% Colorado
38% new York
37% Illinois
37% Oregon
36% Delaware
36% Rhode Island
36% Washington
33% California
32% Massachusetts
30% Maryland
28% Hawaii
26% Vermont

New Hampshire comes in at 41%

Percentages will not necessarily add to 100%.
States giving Trump an unfavorable rating of more than 60% are:
71% Vermont
69% Hawaii
67% Maryland
66% Massachusetts
64% California
62% Rhode Island
61% Illinois
61% Oregon
61% Delaware
615 Washington

States giving Trump an unfavorable rating below 40% are:
38% Kentucky
38% Tennessee
38% South Dakota
37% Arkansas
35% Alabama
34% Oklahoma
31% North Dakota
30% Idaho
29% West Virginia
27% Wyoming

New Hampshire comes in at 56%

#17

IQ scores vary state-to-state. There have been studies linking musical
preferences to various psychological measurements.

According to the reference listed below,
“Intelligence quotients are a measurement of psychological parameters that define a person’s intellect based on their mental age and actual age. The value found after dividing the person’s mental age by the person’s actual age since birth needs to be multiplied by a value of one hundred.”

Also according to this article, the US range of average IQ scores is only 8.5 points, and it points out
that this is not a large difference.

If your IQ score is 100, it means that your intellectual age is equivalent to your calendar age.
The average IQ for the US is 99.6, pretty close to that 100 mark.

States with an average IQ score above 102 are:
103.2 New Hampshire
103.1 Massachusetts
102.9 Minnesota
102.2 Vermont

States with an average IQ score below 97 are:
96.6 Nevada
96.4 Alabama
96.8 Mississippi
95.2 Louisiana
95.0 New Mexico

Note that three of the states listed as over 100 above are also on the list of states with the highest
percentage of persons with more than a high school education, but only one of the states listed
among the those with lower average IQs is also on the list of states with the highest percentage
persons with a high school education or less.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/average-iq-by-state

#18

How happy are people in the states? Obviously something that is difficult to measure precisely, as it depends on interpretation of the
underlying metrics being used.
For example, one study showed that Louisiana was the least happy, and another put Louisiana at 49th place.
It should also be pointed out that, in this case, happiness would be a measure of whether or not people are living in an area that fits them… one reason people move around is that they don’t feel that the state they’re in does not suit them (i.e., they aren’t happy where they are).

I chose the following because it provided the most comprehensive information.

States with a happiness rating above 60:
66.31 Hawaii
62.60 Maryland
62.43 Minnesota
62.41 Utah
61.71 New Jersey
61.60 Idaho

States with a happiness rating below 40:
39.58 Mississippi
39.32 Alabama
38.36 Kentucky
38.23 Arkansas
34.81 Louisiana
33.83 West Virginia

New Hampshire came in at 56.46

https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/happiest-states

#19

In statistics, “median” indicates the value above which half of all the values lie, and below which the other half of values lie.

States with median household income above $95,000 are:
111,000 District of Columbia
106,500 Massachusetts
102,000 Maryland
101,200 Utah
98,780 New Hampshire
98,190 Alaska
97,360 Hawaii
96,640 Colorado
96,490 Virginia

States with median household income below $65,000 are:
63,250 Arkansas
61,980 Kentucky
60,980 New Mexico
60,660 Alabama
60,410 West Virginia
57,650 Louisiana
55,060 Mississippi

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/release/tables?eid=259515&rid=249

#20

It is a truism that “Money can’t buy happiness.”
Above we saw that Hawaii rated highest on the happiness scale, and also among the highest household income. But as we see below, Hawaii also has an extraordinarily high cost of living index.
The US cost of living for a family of four is around $61,000. Hawaii has a median household income of about $97,000… about 60% higher than the cost of living. But their cost of living index is nearly 80% higher than the US cost of living.

Just as we saw a lack of direct correlation between IQ and educational attainment, it is likely true that happiness (implying satisfaction) is not directly correlated with a single other factor, but is rather a complex weaving of many social characteristics.

States a cost of living index is above 120 are:
179.0 Hawaii
148.7 District of Columbia
148.4 Massachusetts
134.5 California
125.1 New York
124.4 Alaska

States with a cost of living index index below 90 are:
89.7 Iowa
88.8 Alabama
88.4 Missouri
87.7 Kansas
86.0 Oklahoma
85.3 Mississippi

New Hampshire comes in at 115.0

https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/cost-of-living-index-by-state